This is a guest post written by Skwigg. This girl is a walking dictionary of food and nutrition facts, has read and tried MULTIPLE fitness plans, and every time I check, she’s read another “hot of the press” diet book. And, she tells it like it is.

skwigg

Well, it took like 25 years of trial and error, but I am a happy eater. I follow no rules. I count no calories. I’m completely over nutrient ratios, meal timing and measuring cups. Plus, as an added bonus, I’m not fat. Any time I’ve flirted with this “intuitive eating” stuff before, I’ve quickly become too fat for my little pants. This time I’m gradually losing. I’m 5’8″ and weigh 135-137 most days. I don’t know my percentage of body fat. It’s possible that I’m losing muscle and brains. I’m not concerned enough to get out the calipers. My Tanita scale tells me that I’m between 14% and 24% body fat. Helpful, eh? It’s like asking a Magic 8 Ball. The readout may as well say “Concentrate and ask again.” Or “Signs point to yes.” All I know is that my yoga pants are loose! Woohoo!

So, why did intuitive eating work this time when it’s destroyed my abs so many times before? I’ve been trying to figure that out. I know that in the past I’ve used intuitive eating as an excuse to binge. I’d turn to it after a bout of really restrictive dieting, or when I couldn’t face my nutrition software, or when I wasn’t accountable to a trainer. My “intuition” would tell me to eat boxes of glazed donuts and sheets of cookies. I’d gain weight, scoff at the total lameness of this “embrace your inner cow” intuitive hoody-hoo, and go right back to obsessive dieting, tracking and measuring. I wrote down every single thing I ate or drank for TWO YEARS. That was not fun, and actually not helpful.

I’m more relaxed now. I don’t make food decisions from a place of frustration and panic. My intuition really likes strawberries. I eat chocolate every day. I like bagels. I like to eat out. I’m not limiting myself to dieter food but I’m very aware of portions. I eat one Cadbury Egg, not six. I eat mini-bagels, not those bakery bagels the size of my head. I understand that a typical restaurant serving is enough to feed four people.

Last time I tried intuitive eating, portion control was my downfall. I believed those books that said to eat as many cookies as I wanted and that eventually I wouldn’t want as many. Right!! Weeks later, I still wanted every cookie that had ever been baked. I was reeling out of control on a blood sugar rollercoaster. The more junk I ate, the more junk I wanted. I was never able to pull it together enough to even maintain my weight, much less lose.

Some things that really helped me this time:

- I weigh myself every day. If you’re not going to count calories or measure your food, you’d better be keeping an eye on something. It could be weight, waist measurement, a caliper pinch, a pair of jeans, but you need some kind of objective feedback. If you choose not to track your food and not to look at any of your measurements, then you’d better go buy some fat pants.

- I eat what I want but I always control portions. Generally, the more I want something, the more I need to watch out. I can play fast and loose with spinach but I’d better take my ice cream in a single-serving container.

- I share. I never used to share before. Sharing is the greatest thing ever! You get to eat whatever you want and make everyone around you fat. Try it! Order the double-fudge super cookie dough caramel delight. Eat three bites and watch your dining companions devour the rest of it like hungry hyenas. Share your French fries. Split the sandwich. Order three tacos and only eat one of them. It’s exhilarating! Plus, I always have great leftovers.

- I strike a nice balance of healthy food and treats. You can’t eat an all-treat diet and look or feel very good. I eat loads of fresh fruits and vegetables every day. I love whole grains. I eat nuts and seeds like I’m a squirrel. I’m a sucker for a big salad. I enjoy lean protein as long as it’s not forced upon me every 2-3 hours. I eat a lot of healthy whole foods but I like to add a Pop Tart or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup for good measure.

- I don’t eat six times per day, or three times per day, or three meals and two snacks. I don’t follow anybody else’s rules because how does the book or the calculator know what I’m doing or when I’m going to be hungry? It doesn’t. So, I eat when I feel like it. On an active, hungry day I might eat 5-6 times. On a lazy day with restaurant food, I might eat 2-3 times. I’m no longer dumb enough try to force three more meals after lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

- I grasp the importance of good nutrition. I’m not knocking diet plans or nutrition programs, especially if you’re trying to achieve a sports performance or body comp goal. A little bit of structure can be good. I base my eating on the healthy principles I’ve learned but I don’t allow myself to become a slave to the details. And don’t believe that I can eat as many cookies as I want and still lose weight. Big derrrr there!

- I flow. That’s significant because I used to battle. I battled my weight. I struggled with willpower. I waged a war against fat. I fought with the numbers. I kicked myself when I slipped. My mindset was one big bloody massacre. My fitness goals were always at odds with what I really wanted, which was to relax and eat Cheetos. Now, if I want to relax and eat Cheetos, I do so immediately. No struggle. No stress. No guilt. I know that for my next meal I’ll choose something a little more ab-friendly.

Carol - thanks for the new thread and for the post by Skwigg. Every time I read it I get re-inspired!

I've read about 2/3 of Overcoming Overeating. (Hirschmann, Munter) I wasn't super-thrilled about the first third of the book, as there's too much analysis in there. But Phase 2 - Feeding Yourself is excellent! Lots of interesting ideas in there I'd not seen elsewhere. And what I didn't see was any real emphasis on how to determine "hunger/fullness" cues. I'm sure it's mentioned along the way, but not to any great extent. It might show up in Phase 3, but I rather doubt it as it is called Finding Yourself. I think the part is likely more about dealing with food obsession.

So even if I don't care for Phase 1 OR Phase 3, Phase 2 was worth the read. If you can get it at your local library I'd go that route. Unfortunately it wasn't even in the card catalog of my county library, which is surprising, as it is a very large system. I had no problem getting Intuitive Eating there; they had lots of copies of that.

__________________"As I cleared out the clutter of diet propaganda that had expanded
to fill every available convolution of my brain, the fat went away with it."
- Rob Stevens, The Overfed Head

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein

Maven....Overcoming Overeating book I have and a Great read..I always had re-read so many times that how I loved it so much..Now its buried in my bookshelf and I agree, Its an eye opener! Happy Reading!!

Maven....Overcoming Overeating book I have and a Great read..I always had re-read so many times that how I loved it so much..Now its buried in my bookshelf and I agree, Its an eye opener! Happy Reading!!

Have a great day all...

Thanks Liliann!

Have you read The Overfed Head? Would love your opinion about that one. It's still my favorite.

__________________"As I cleared out the clutter of diet propaganda that had expanded
to fill every available convolution of my brain, the fat went away with it."
- Rob Stevens, The Overfed Head

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein

What a great post by skwigg. You know, I used to live that way in my early 20's, I just went with it. Maybe I'm too technical about everything. This is definitely something to think about. What book would anyone suggest as a first reading on the subject?

What a great post by skwigg. You know, I used to live that way in my early 20's, I just went with it. Maybe I'm too technical about everything. This is definitely something to think about. What book would anyone suggest as a first reading on the subject?

The favorite around here is The Overfed Head. You can find a free pdf version if you google the title plus "pdf".

Hello everyone! I'm new here, but have been reading posts for several days and since I am very interested in the intuitive eating topic decided to get an id and post.

I'm from Illinois, spent my whole life there. I have been married for 38 years and have two wonderful grown sons, 27 and 30. I hit the big 6-0 in 2013 and retired from a challenging career at the end of the year. So it's been a very busy but exciting change of pace in the past weeks.

I have never been terribly overweight but I'm one or those people who have always yo-yo'd up and down 10-12 pounds. It is one of those incredibly frustrating things I simply have never been able to get past. I read the Tribole book 15 years ago and related to so much of it and honestly have incorporated most things into my life much or the time. BUT I forever get stressed and overwhelmed and rather rebellion snack and can quickly put those pounds on. Then I get motivated and eat very intuitively and exercise and feel just wonderful. I haven't been able to kick the cycling though and by now you would think I could have figured it out.

I now have a lot more time and less to overwhelm me. We got a 2nd home in Florida and I've been here since the beginning of January generally detoxing from Christmas and flushing out with loads of fruits and veggies and generally healthy meals. The weather is great and I have been walking a ton and just joined a fitness center down the street. They do yoga and Pilates and it's very convenient.

I downloaded the Tribole book to my kindle and read it again and I'm about halfway through the Overfed Head PDF. When I am "on" I just feel so wonderful my energy is up and I honestly feel like I'm there and swear I will never ever go out of the pattern. But usually after 6 months I start to just snack and pretty soon it all goes and then I get those pounds back and have to start again.

My plan is to try really really hard to stop and be intuitive all the time.

Right now I am writing down what I eat as it helps me break out of the nibbling thing but I want to stop that soon. I never weigh myself anymore after I read the book so many years ago but I can certainly tell by the fit of my clothes where I am.

I'm still where I was last time I checked in, and that's kind of tough. I'm not losing, not gaining, not not-eating when I'm not hungry but being much better about not stuffing myself. Half of me wants to say this is a step in the process, while another part says that's a cop-out and I'm doing nothing and trying to pass it off as IE. BUT I remind myself what Maven said about if you're not gaining, you're probably doing better than you think. And the post that Carol copied above, where the writer talks about getting too big for her pants on several early tries, sees to echo that. So I think I need to give myself a break, and realize if I need to rest a while at not-dieting but not-really-eating-intuitively-yet, that's perfectly valid as a step.

Other hand (and oddly, considering the low and sub-zero temps lately have me wanting to sleep 16 hours a day), I'm really enjoying the exercise I started nearly 3 weeks ago - I've only missed one or two days altogether. I look forward to the Classical Stretch each day, I'm doing relaxing meditation and slow tai-chi-ish dvds each evening to help me sleep well, and I'm looking at attempting to start T-Tapp (no promises on how that'll go yet).

Just to double-check and confirm to myself that I'm not assuming I'm not gaining weight when in fact I am, I stepped on the scale this morning. Last time was about 3 weeks ago, before I started the exercise program. Even before I stepped, I started justifying. If I gained a couple, it was just part of this IE process. It was because I gained a bit of muscle. It was just a natural fluctuation...

I'm either the same or down one pound since last time I weighed. My scale isn't precise enough to say for sure. Either way, I can rest assured I'm not in denial whilst gaining at a serious clip-clop. Yay!

One weighing a month or so is probably a good idea. Just to make sure I'm not going too far out-of-bounds.